Robbie Lawler Comes Out of Retirement to Wrestle Khamzat Chimaev at RAF 14

Robbie Lawler is competing again, but not the way anyone expected. Real American Freestyle announced Wednesday that the 44-year-old UFC Hall of Famer will make his RAF debut against former UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev in a catchweight wrestling match at RAF 14 on Oct. 23 at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas. It's his first competitive outing since he knocked out Niko Price at UFC 290 and stepped away from MMA in 2023.

This is a homecoming of sorts. Before Lawler built a two-decade fight career, he was an all-state high school wrestler in Bettendorf, Iowa — though he never took the sport past that level. Now he's stepping onto the mat against one of the most decorated grapplers in the promotion, and the resume gap is glaring.

Chimaev's the Grappler in This Room

"Borz" isn't just dabbling. Chimaev is a three-time Swedish national wrestling champion, and he's carried that pedigree into RAF since joining this summer after dropping the UFC middleweight belt to Sean Strickland at UFC 328. He's 2-0 in the promotion, both wins by fall — first over Dillon Danis, then over Tyron Woodley. Against a former MMA wrestler who peaked in high school, the styles-make-fights math is lopsided on paper.

Lawler's edge, if there is one, is grit. He fought Rory MacDonald, Carlos Condit and Johny Hendricks in some of the most brutal welterweight scraps the UFC has ever put on. Whether that translates to a straight wrestling ruleset against a specialist half his age is the whole question here.

The card is stacked with familiar MMA faces trading the cage for the mat. RAF 14 is headlined by a title bout between Dillon Danis and UFC lightweight Arman Tsarukyan, the division's No. 2-ranked contender who's 24-3 with 10 knockouts and six submissions in MMA. That's a serious competitive pedigree anchoring the show.

Chimaev, for his part, has bigger plans. He's already said he wants a showdown with Colby Covington — who racked up a fast 10 points to beat Belal Muhammad at RAF 13 — and he's booked for the main event of RAF's first Abu Dhabi card in November. The Lawler bout reads like a tune-up on the way to that grudge match, but Lawler's spent his whole career making people regret underestimating him.